Chelmsford native, Hall of Famer flying high

By Grant Welker, gwelker@lowellsun.com

Updated:
01/25/2013 08:23:01 AM EST

As the chief scientist for the U.S. Air Force, Chelmsford's Mark Maybury has a central role in much of the Air Force's strategic studies, analyses of future capabilities, and, along with the secretary and chief of staff, reviews threats, plans and programs.

The 1982 graduate of Chelmsford High School -- and a "humbled" 2002 inductee into the school's Hall of Fame -- was nominated for the Air Force post in 2010 after serving on an Air Force advisory board while at MITRE, a Bedford company that manages federally funded research centers.

Maybury, 48, spends his week in the Washington area, but returns home on weekends to be with his family in Chelmsford: wife Michelle; son Zachary, a 21-year-old computer-science graduate student at UMass Lowell; son Max, a 19-year-old sophomore computer-science major at MIT; and daughter Julia, a 12-year-old Parker Middle School student.

He has a doctorate of philosophy in artificial intelligence from Cambridge University in England, a master's in business administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a master's in philosophy in computer speech and language processing from Cambridge University, and a bachelor's in mathematics from Holy Cross, where he was valedictorian.

Q: How did you end up as the Air Force chief scientist?

A: While I was working at MITRE, I assisted several advisory boards, such as defense or intelligence, including serving on the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board for several years. In 2010, the previous Air Force chief scientist, Werner Dahm, recommended me to the Chief of Staff, Gen.

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Norton Schwartz, who nominated me to the secretary of the Air Force, Michael Donley, who selected me as the 33rd chief scientist of the U.S. Air Force.

Q: What is a typical day like?

A: Like many executives, there really is no typical day, although they are often long and challenging but stimulating. On any particular day, I could be meeting with the White House Office of Science Technology Policy, intelligence professionals, interagency experts, leading academics, experts from the national laboratories and federally funded research and development centers or other nonprofits, military forces, congressional staffers or reporters.

Q: Do you travel a lot for work?

A: Yes. While our scientific work is intellectually challenging, it is extremely enjoyable and meaningful because of the amazing Americans I am privileged to meet every week. Typically, the trips involve giving keynote talks and/or reviewing Air Force-funded and other national-level investments at leading academic or industrial institutions, as well as national laboratories and federally funded research centers.

Q: Did you serve in the Air Force?

A: I was commissioned under ROTC as a second lieutenant in the Air Force at Holy Cross in 1986. I served on active duty from 1986 until I separated to join the MITRE Corporation in September 1990.

Q: Were you ever deployed overseas?

A: I was stationed at Royal Air Force Base Alconbury for one year while I attended Cambridge University under a Rotary Foundation scholarship. In 2003, as a member of MITRE, I was asked to serve as a senior executive technical adviser in Iraq for a brief period. While serving, in fact, we were attacked by insurgents during an overnight stay at the Al Rasheed Hotel in the Green Zone in Baghdad, resulting in one death and many injured. Unharmed, I completed my service and returned home safely back to my family a few weeks later. That experience deepened my appreciation for democracy and the national security we enjoy in the U.S. It also increased my thankfulness for the risks the men and women of our armed forces take every day around the world to ensure the preservation of our way of life.

Q: You were also awarded for your help with the World Trade Center rescue and recovery efforts. What did that involve?

A: A team of folks from MITRE had the privilege of helping bring our systems-engineering expertise to the recovery effort in New York in the weeks immediately following 9/11. We set up a rapid intelligence exploitation cell and were able to provide real-time sensor fusion and mapping solutions to the rescue workers on scene. Arriving on scene was a very emotional experience, but the interagency cooperation was impressive.

Q: Do you live in the Washington area now?

A: I have an apartment very close to the Pentagon where I live during the week, but I return home to visit my family every weekend in Chelmsford. I enjoy watching our daughter, Julia, play ice hockey, playing music with our sons, Zach and Max, or walking our golden retriever, Brady, with my wife, Michelle.

Q: What instrument do you play?

A: I'm a professionally trained jazz percussionist, but I also play rhythm guitar in a few big bands with my dad or sons. My dad, sons and I play every Friday in the Chatham band where I am the cymbal player. Zach and Max play alto/tenor and baritone sax, respectively, and my dad plays clarinet. It's a great way to blow off steam after a hard week in Washington.

Q: What are your memories of Chelmsford High School?

A: I am very thankful to all my teachers for providing an outstanding science and mathematics foundation, which I use every day. In high school, I played tennis and swam, traveled to Venezuela on a foreign exchange, hosted an exchange student who introduced me to my wife, and was vice president of my class.

Q: How did you meet your wife?

A: Marcelo Paganini was an Argentinean American Field Service student during our senior year. He was in my wife Michelle's German class, and they became friends. He kept telling me about this wonderful girl, but I never listened to him until one day I passed her in a stairwell at CHS and, well, this scientist was dubious about the phenomenon, but it was, in fact, love at first sight for both of us.

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